Hull City 0 Aston Villa 2: Mat Kendrick's big match report and ratings

Apr 22 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

IAIN Dowie fears relegation would cause Hull scores of redundancies – no doubt including his own.

But for Champions League-chasing Villa, Martin O’Neill’s job security seems to get stronger with every win.

Last night’s vital victory at the KC Stadium means the claret and blues are the first club outside the Big Four to reach the Premier League’s 1,000-point barrier.

If that stat hints at how Villa have flirted with the elite over the past two decades, then there’s an even more important one which proves they are closing in on the top four.

O’Neill’s men are now just three points off fourth-placed Tottenham – albeit with inferior goal difference and with three rather than four games to play.

They now have 61 points – three more than at the same stage last season so – in fairness to the under-pressure manager – that’s progress.

Blues will be determined to poop the party when they visit Villa Park on Sunday, but make no mistake there’s much much more than local pride at stake now.

With both Hull and Villa desperate for points O’Neill predicted an open game last night and he was right as the Tigers and the Lions both went on the attack.

There was an early exchange of chances when Kevin Kilbane blazed over after Stephen Warnock’s poor clearance before James Milner dragged a low shot wide.

It was Villa who struck first on 14 minutes when John Carew, in his 100th Premier League game, charged down Paul McShane’s clearance and the ball broke kindly to Gabby Agbonlahor on the corner of the six-yard box.

The Brummie’s Norwegian strike partner looked perfectly placed for a cut-back but instead Agbonlahor ignored Carew and crashed an audacious angled drive past Matt Duke and two defenders into the top right corner. Villa were on top and looked capable of significantly boosting their goal difference.